Closed Lanes: Legion is Beginning to Feel Like a One-Way Street
November 18, 2024
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After all of the time that I spent saying I wouldn’t be going to world’s (and writing a whole article on it), I ended up being able to go. I unfortunately failed to reach day two which left no big article to write on all my games, as well as giving more time to think about the event as a whole and the structure of the tournament.
Firstly, I want to praise the staff, judges, players and all involved in making a great event that had some less than ideal circumstances leading up to it. All people seemed to have a good time and be glad they went. The judge and TO team in particular needs to be praised for all the work they did to make this event great.
I also want to reiterate that this article is just my opinion. I managed to talk to a lot of players and organizers to clarify my thoughts, but this is still only my opinion.
Plenty of awesome stuff was to be had at this worlds.
Like has already been stated, the overall event was awesome. There was plenty to do for legion players and everyone seemed to be busy having a great time.
The stream setup this year was excellent. Streaming was handled by Yavin Base and That’s No Moon. The casters held it down all weekend providing great covereage and giveaways. All the streams are still available on their channels for you to peruse and see some great games.
Additionally, there was another great addition to the stream setup. The streaming setups for X-Wing, Shatterpoint, MCP and Legion were all located next to each other. There was then a TV setup at the other end of the hall, near all the legion stuff for us to watch the stream on. This meant that the table wasn’t being crowded in the same way and I’m sure the players appreciated not having a bunch of legion nerds staring right at them. This also lead to a better viewing experience for the people in the hall as all who remained at worlds not playing gathered around this TV to watch the final.
Legion continued to have good tables for this worlds event. This is directly a result of all the hard work and dedication of all the terrain builders and painters out there. With 140 tables being set up for this event it was the largest of gathering of legion tables (and players) the world has ever seen. Great effort was needed to ensure that this increase of quantity didn’t yield a decrease in quality.
As always, the community for this game ends up being the biggest draw for these big tournaments. Between playing excellent games, those making huge journeys to make it, and all the shenanigans ensue I always look forward to seeing everyone.
The prize wall was a great addition to worlds this year. Having a uniform, steady way for players to redeem tickets worked very well.
The prize wall wasn’t without some growing pains though. For reference, you got 8 tickets for playing a game in the main events. You then got 2 more for a win or 1 more for a draw. There were ways to get an additional 24 tickets per day by signing up for side events to play more games (though many of these tickets were awarded to players who just punched the card without playing the games.)
Functionally you could earn a max of 64 tickets per day. This lead to some weirdness with the ticket prices and the overall lack of variety for legion prizes in particular. For legion you could get already existing alt arts, (or geonosians) for 5 tickets. Foil promos with already existing art for 20 tickets. Or, two dice for 10 tickets. Dice ended up being the biggest seller with the black promo attack dice being the hottest item.
As long as there is continued growth for the prize wall, ie different prizes and adjustments to the ticket economy, then I’m sure it will be a loved cornerstone of AMG events.
Check out a more in-depth look at the reveals here.
But the thing to mention about the panel was that it was good fun and many things were shown off. There is obviously care and investment being put into the game by the devs.
I hesitate to start a section with ‘the bad’ (so I didn’t) but a lot of this will be not good stuff. However a lot of it has ways to be fixed relatively easily. With the community making its voice heard in a constructive way I’m sure these issues will be addressed in time.
With the first full implementation of the full Galactic Conquest rules being at this worlds there were certainly things that the community was not used to or excited for. One of the things that set off a lot of alarm bells before the tournament was the time rules. TLDR, you don’t know how much time you have used or is left and there is some random time at the end.
Firstly, the random time implementation is a big ol’ shrug. This part of the time rules isn’t really a big deal, it’s weird and unnecessary but I don’t think anyone really has a contention with this.
The much bigger problem is that players aren’t supposed to be aware of how much time they have used or is left. This had obvious rammifications in game, but also problems for the larger logistics of the tournament.
We have already largely talked to death the problems for in game. Personally, the time never affected any of my games and I set a timer each round to know approximately how much time had been used. However I have two anecdotes to show issues with these new rules.
One of these is my own story. The situation is we’re playing payload and we just finished round 5. My opponent’s cart is touching their objective and mine is not. The game is in that state where both players can see the writing on the wall. I was set up for a victory, but, had time been called then I would’ve lost.
My opponent was chatting about the game state, in the way you do when you know the game is over. But, due to not knowing when time would be called I had to kind of rush them to put down a command card. If I had known how much time was left I wouldn’t have been so stressed about putting down a command card as we had plenty of time left as it turned out.
Another incident was one where both players set a timer, but were off in when they set it. Both players were committed to getting to round 6 but just mistimed things such that they were very surprised when time was called as they were finishing up round 5. This left a game that would’ve come down to a close climactic result being suddenly thrown to one player. If both players had just known where they were on the clock they would have completed the game.
The most irksome thing over the weekend though was actually that X-Wing had clocks. X-Wing actually had a really good setup. They had three big digital clocks around their play area that all counted up from when the time started. If we over on the legion side had this same setup, basically all the complaints would’ve been solved. It honestly felt like a huge slap in the face as a legion player that the game that caused these time rules to be written ostensibly had clocks whereas we weren’t even allowed to ask when the round started.
Not being able to ask when the round started also caused logistical issues as you couldn’t know if you had time to go peruse the vendor hall or even go to the washroom. This was remedied over the course of the event by displaying at the judge table a ‘when to be back’ time for all games. But knowing when each round starts would also solve this issue.
A big talking point throughout the weekend was draws, particularly intentional draws. There really needs to be a seperation of the topic into two things. Intentional draws and ‘natural draws’. It also must be stated that as long as intentional draws are in the rules then people will take them, and we shouldn’t drag them for that. Players will do what is in their best interest within the rules.
Natural draws I have no inherent problem with. They do tend to mess with the standings but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I do have an issue with intentional draws as a concept though.
I would start by removing the ability for players to draw when not actually in a game state to draw. This would mean if your bid isn’t the same you’d actually have to play the game. I would also be in favour of not allowing draws till after turn 0 and deployment. If both players at that time decide they will not be risking anything and won’t push for a victory then c’est la vie. This would force more legion to be played which is what we go to these tournaments to do.
The structure of worlds this year was a four round day on friday followed by a top 32 cut. This, in practice, meant it was a single elimination event. As this event is attended by those from all over the world who spend a lot of money to attend, having a potential to be bounced round one is ridiculous. After discussing with a few people I would make two suggestions.
Cut the LCQ. Legion has grown enough that we no longer need the LCQ. This would open up Thursday for worlds to begin. This would then mean we could have two days of swiss, six-eight rounds, then cut to Saturday. Assuming we get between 300-350 players next year, we should strive for seven or eight rounds. This would guarantee all X-1s make the top 32, as well as even some X-2s. Having this swiss format would also lead to more ‘real’ games for all players, especially those who travel long distances.
Another potential is to do six rounds of swiss over Thursday and Friday and then cut to 64. This would be very similar to last year’s worlds to require either four rounds on Saturday or three rounds and a shadow round. This would also prevent most players from having to play four rounds in a day and only lead to one four round day for the staff. I have no qualms about playing many four round days in a row, but many can’t do it. Four rounds in a day is also hard on the staff.
I personally am not a good enough painter to really compete for painting prizes. But I know some who are who feel let down by the lack of solid painting/hobby prizes or competitions at worlds. I would really like to see a chance for all people who attend to be given the opportunity to put forth a model, a squad, and/or an army. Logistically I know that is a big ask, but striving towards this would be a good boon for the community.
Worlds was a great time! Congrats to our top 4 who represented four different countries, (including Canada)
Additionally we must congratulate our new World Champion, from the UK, Mr. Olly Dier.
Looking forward to seeing you all next year at worlds 2025.
P.S. If Karaoke happens to be happening at a legion event, go. It’s a great time. (Pictures redacted)
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